"Marinate" water?

[seannn]

I'm trying to get more flavor in my dough and I thought perhaps I could "marinate" my dough water.  Perhaps boil the water with some herbs, let it cool to the proper temperature, and then use it in the dough.

Has this been done before?  Is it a good idea?

[Tscarborough]

Why not just put the herbs in the dough?  I put chopped thyme, garlic powder, paprika, dill, etc in various formulations.  They do not make much difference on the finished crust taste, but they do make the dough smell wonderful while it works.

[seannn]

Well, I'm thinking this would better distribute the flavor of the herbs rather than putting it in the dough.

What do you suggest for bumping up the flavor of my dough?

[Tscarborough]

Cold fermentation.

[seannn]

What does cold fermentation do for the dough?

[android]

without getting too technical, it adds a ton of flavor by retarding the normal fermentation process and really makes the yeast work to break down all the sugars into wonderful delisciousness. if you seek a more detailed explanation, search around this site, there are loads of threads about cold fermentation already.

[Guts]

a good malt beer works well to add flavor too.

[ponzu]

Agree with cold fermentation.

Also if your not using a starter,  this is a guaranteed flavor boost.  it's harder to work with but by all means if flavor is your goal, spend your time working with wild yeast.  The ischia starter fron sourdo.com is the most aggressively flavored starter that i've worked with to date.

The herb thing strikes me as a bit gimmicky and not likely to really impart flavor past the high heat baking stage.

But by all means please report back with the results of your experimentation.

[seannn]

If I ferment cold do I have to wait a lot longer for the dough to rise?

[ponzu]

If I ferment cold do I have to wait a lot longer for the dough to rise?

You do have to wait longer as fermentation rate is quite dependant on temperature.

An excellent experiment to illustrate the effects of cold fermentation would be to mix up a large batch of your typical dough.  At the stage where you ball up your dough, split the dough into 3 sets of balls.

Set 1:  Do what you normally do.
Set 2:  place balls in lightly oiled glad containers place in fridge for 2 days.  Take out 3 hours prior to baking.
Set 3:  Do the same thing as step 2  but age in fridge for 4 days.

I think you'll find the flavor change interesting.

Again wild yeast will amplify this flavor change.

[Tscarborough]

This post made me think.  I will add some LCB* to the water for my next dough. 



*LCB= Secret Ingredient=Liquid Crab Boil=Nectar of the Gods.